Returning Intern Profile / Perfil de becaria de regreso

Hello again, Alli!

Alli returns for her second year as a Huertas fellow! Last
year, as a Field intern, Alli worked directly with farmworkers in the process
of surveying, excavating and creating household gardens. This year as a returning
fellow, Alli will be initiating new interns and helping with specialty work
throughout the planning and planting process. As a Community Development major
at UVM with a strong Spanish ability, Alli was immediately interested in this
project when she first learned of it in a class she took with Professor Dan
Baker.

Alli says that working with Huertas has allowed her to form
a sense of independence and trust her own actions in the workforce setting,
especially working with migrant farmworkers in rural Vermont. In addition, she
credits the Huertas project with her highly increased communication skills in
general and, more importantly, in a non-native language. The entire experience
thus far has provided her with what she calls an “insight into things outside
of yourself”—i.e. a whole-systems way of thinking that highlights
cross-cultural skills. In the future, Alli hopes to continue working with
migrant populations and food systems in a hands-on manner in Vermont or in
Oaxaca, Mexico. She has also expressed interest in traveling to India both as a
yoga instructor and in order to work with permaculture there.

When asked what advice she would give to new interns, Alli said that her biggest takeaway was to invest in the migrant workers themselves; whatever involvement you have, gain contextual information about the people you are working with in order to form relationships and be educated about what is going on in the Vermont community, as well as the US at large (in which immigration is a highly stigmatized topic). Alli says that Huertas has created a sense of family and belonging in a Vermont community that is, in many ways, hidden and disadvantaged. She is looking forward to working with Huertas as she enters into her last semester at UVM!